Thursday, March 19, 2015

Language Arts Lesson -- "Parenthetical Citation"

Language Arts Lesson -- "Parenthetical Citation"

Research can and should be interesting and exciting, but students are often burdened by the technical aspects of citing sources.

They often struggle with taking notes, using quotes, summarizing information, and citing sources. Add the issue of plagiarism into the mix, and you’re likely to have a confused group of students who can easily forget the joy of research!

This lesson is designed to give students practice creating parenthetical citations using the MLA format.

In this lesson, students will:

• define plagiarism and determine how to identify and avoid it• understand what parenthetical citation is• understand when to use ellipsis and brackets when quoting materials• practice citing sources with the correct parenthetical citations for direct quotes and summaries• practice using parenthetical citation for a variety of reference sources – including web and print resources• practice introducing quotes • assess samples for plagiarism and correct formatting• determine important quotes from an article• summarize two articles and check for plagiarism• collaborate with peers in evaluating summaries• create an original paragraph using summarized material• create an original paragraph using quotes • self-assess competency in this unit of study

All “reference materials” used in this lesson are original fictional articles, quotes, and persons that I have invented.

The skills in this unit are taught using the Seventh Edition of the MLA.